Blind, Education for the

Historical Development

The key European figure in developing teaching methods for the blind was Valentin Hauy (1745–1822), a French aristocrat who championed more humane treatment for all disabled persons but focused on developing instructional techniques for blind persons. He played a leading role in developing raised print for use by blind readers. He also encouraged vocational [Page 85]training for the blind, arguing that gainful employment would permit more authentic and effective participation in a mostly sighted society.

Hauy's methods and priorities underscored a growing belief among those working with the disabled that blind persons were certainly capable of formal academic instruction and deserved more humane treatment from their fellow human beings. Education of blind persons, which typically occurred in private tutorials or in institutions, spread from France to England by 1800, where the emphasis again fell on vocational or trade training. In addition, music instruction was often featured to enhance learning through senses other than sight.

European beliefs about and approaches to the education of the blind migrated to the United States primarily via the efforts of two individuals: Dr. John Fischer and Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, both from the Boston area. Fischer's visits to the school for the blind in Paris prompted him to work to establish a similar school in the United States. His efforts led to the 1832 opening of what became known as the Perkins Institution and the Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind, located in Boston and headed by Howe. The school quickly assumed a national leadership role and enrolled students from all regions of the country by the late 1800s.

Perkins not only educated blind students but also trained many of the teachers for other institutions and schools for the blind. Such settings increased steadily in number throughout the nineteenth and into the twentieth century, with over three dozen institutions providing educational services to blind students by the early 1900s. Many of these combined educational services with those for deaf students, while others were segregated by race. High profile cases such as Laura Bridgman (Howe's first prominent deaf-blind student) and Annie Sullivan (Helen Keller's famous teacher) drew attention to Perkins in particular and efforts to educate the blind in general.

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